AMA: Shopify Senior Product Marketing Lead, Stephanie Kelman on Product Launches

Using the product UI as one of your marketing channels for a launch can be so effective because you are meeting your customer where they are. It also reduces friction in the customer journey and lends to more seamless adoption.   However, you must be very careful with marketing directly in the product UI because it’s easy to abuse the channel and create excess noise for your customers. Remember, at the end of the day, you want your customer to find value in the product and not be bombarded with ...Read More

Here are some of my learnings from successful product launches: Don’t launch a half baked product, you don’t get a 2nd first impression and you will burn trust with your users  Test your messaging with beta users - do your value props align to their feedback?  Re-market the feature with an adoption/growth campaign at a later date. You'll have new use cases, user testimonials, data proof points (which you don’t always have at launch) Just say the thing - don't get distracted with marketing fluff ...Read More

I don’t agree with the strategy of “holding” back feature launches for a regular launch cadence. Tech moves fast and you should be constantly shipping. Launch the feature when it’s ready. However, you can make a bigger splash later with a big market moment or by bundling features together. Don’t worry too much about re-marketing your feature in this scenario. Bundling features together is a great way to…. Getting your feature in front of your customer often and in different ways can be beneficia ...Read More

There isn’t a big hidden secret to prioritizing channels for your product launch. Choose the ones that have the best performance for your target audience. This may change from launch to launch depending on your goals and audience. Don’t just rely on vanity metrics like open rates, clicks, and impressions. Work with your data or marketing performance team to determine which channels contribute to the strongest product adoption.  Make sure your channels are varied so you can maximize your reach. I ...Read More

Finding new and creative approaches to product launches is one of the most exciting yet hardest parts of GTM. Product marketers have to break free of the GTM checklist. It’s understandable that PMMs fall back on email and social posts because they are efficient channels to use to reach your target market.  If you don’t have the resources or budget to try a new channel, get creative in your existing channels. Instead of your typical post on X, whip up a fun GIF or 1 minute tutorial showcasing the ...Read More

I've seen many product marketers who work really hard on a product launch, ship a beautiful campaign, and report back on their email open rates, click thru, page views, etc. While these types of metrics can be useful for an early signal of the product launch's success, they are not the best way to measure success and influence the future product roadmap. The best measure of success is true product adoption that can be attributed to you launch activities. Are customers using the product that you ...Read More

My best 'do not miss' piece of advice for product launches to make sure that your product positioning is solid and differentiated. It needs to be rooted in specific benefits. The best rule of thumb is if your competitor can slap their name on your main message, then you need to rethink it. Your messaging, value props and benefits need to feel unique and specific to your product. What is the one thing that your product does that a competitor cannot claim. Make sure that is the focal messaging of ...Read More